ANSWERS TO THE EXERCISES

Let’s Recall
I. Based on your understanding, tick ( ) the correct option.
1. c.; 2. c.; 3. b.; 4. a.; 5. c.
II. State whether the following statements are true or false and rewrite the incorrect
statements to correct them.
1. False. The Widow Remarriage Act was passed in 1856.
2. True 3. True
4. True
5. False. Kandukuri Veeresalingam is regarded as the exponent of social reform in
Andhra Pradesh
III. Answer the following in one sentence.
1. Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain and Tarabai Shinde played notable roles in promoting
education among women. (Note: The other notable contributors were: Pandita
Ramabai, Begums of Bhopal, Rassundari Debi)
2. Hindu Balika Vidyalaya was the school that provided transport facilities for girls to
reach school and come back home. John Drinkwater Bethune established this school.
3. The Sarda Act of 1929 raised the marriageable age of girls to 14.
4. The Brahmo Samaj declared that the early marriage of girls was illegal in Bengal.
5. Shri Narayana Guru advocated the message of one caste, one God and one religion
for the entire humankind.
IV. Answer the following questions in brief.
1. The status of women in pre-colonial India was very low due to age-old social customs
and practices that reflected the dominance of men in all walks of life. A woman had
no major role in the family. All important decisions in her life were taken by either her
father or her husband, and later on by her son. Women did not have the right to
inherit their father’s property. Infanticide, polygamy and child marriage were
common.

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 2. The one major reason girls were not allowed to be educated in schools was because it
was thought that they would neglect their household duties and would not prove to
be ideal wives or mothers.
3. Jyotiba Phule tried to help low-caste girls in the following ways:
• He founded a library for low-caste people and a school for low-caste girls.
• He educated his illiterate wife, Savitribai Phule, who later became a teacher at
the school founded by him.
4. The Bahishkrit Hitakarini Sabha was founded by BR Ambedkar. Its goal was to
spread education among the lower castes.
5. Stripurush Tulna was written by Tarabai Shinde. This book is about the problems
women faced in Indian society due to gender bias.
• The pamphlet was originally published in Marathi in 1882. The literary work is
a critique of upper caste patriarchy and the gender and caste system in 19th
century India.
• The material is also considered the first modern feminist text of India. Shinde
questions the position of women in the society and their rights.
V. Answer the following questions in detail.
1. The Hindu widows faced a lot of problems in the 19th century.
• Girls were married off at a very young age to much older grooms, sometimes
when they were just two to six years old.
• By the time they gained maturity, they were usually widowed.
• Widowhood was considered inauspicious, and a widow was forced to lead a
secluded life.
• Girls were also expected to bring huge amount of gifts in cash or kind, from
their parents’ house during marriage.
• The sati system was one of the most barbaric practices prevalent in north and
east India during the period. As per this system, a woman was proclaimed to be
a sati or a virtuous woman if she burnt herself on her husband’s funeral pyre.
This practice led to many women being burnt alive on the death of their
husbands.

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The two reformers who helped Hindu widows were Raja Rammohan Roy and Ishwarchandra
Vidyasagar. Raja Rammohan Roy started the Atmiya Sabha to highlight the social evils prevalent
in Bengal.
He established the Brahmo Samaj in 1830, which worked to improve position of women in
society, to promote widow remarriage in Bengal and campaigned against child marriage and sati,
which led to its abolition.
Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar played an important role in the first Hindu widow remarriage, in
Calcutta in 1856.
He opened the first girl’s school along with John Drinkwater Bethune, in Calcutta, in 1849.
2. The 19th century social reformers wanted to abolish caste inequalities in India
because they felt that the caste system denied basic dignity and well-being of a particular
class of people in the society who were called the untouchables.
• The so-called untouchables lived in separate, specially demarcated areas.
• They were not allowed to draw water from public wells or to use public
transport.
• They were denied access to temples and schools.
The social reformers worked towards making the British rulers bring the
following changes in Indian society. The British rulers introduced a uniform
administrative, legal and political system that treated all castes equally.
• introduced a new system of mass transport such as the railways, which allowed
people of different castes to travel together. Thus, people of different castes
got an opportunity to interact and mix with one another.
• set up new educational institutions for spreading Western education, which
were open to all sections of society. Children of the lower castes, thus, had
access to the same educational resources.
• made workers from all castes and social backgrounds work together in factories
and plantations.
3. The reformers organised social reform movements in the 19th century India because
they wanted to change women’s lives and uplift them in society. The different
movements for women upliftment were:
• Movement against child marriage: Social reformers took up the task of putting
an end to this practice and several legislations were passed on this matter. In
1860, the marriageable age for girls was raised to 10 years. In 1891, the Age of
Consent Act was passed, through which a girl’s legally approved age for
marriage was raised to 12 years. The Sarda Act of 1929 increased the age of
consent to 14 for females and 18 for males.
• Movement against sati: In 1829, Lord William Bentinck, the British Governor-
general, passed an Act to ban the practice of sati.

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 • Movement for widow remarriage: To realise the prospects of a better and
happier life
for them, many reformers advocated widow remarriage and Governor-General Lord
Dalhousie appreciated the efforts of reformers and the Widow Remarriage Act was
passed in 1856.
4. Kandukuri Veeresalingam played a very important role in the social reform in Andhra
Pradesh:
• His major contribution was in women’s education, widow remarriage and caste
reform.
• He launched the Rajahmundry Social Reform Association in 1878 and worked
towards caste equality in the Andhra region.
• He played a major role in the establishment of several schools for the
untouchables and working class people.

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